Contents & Abstracts - ALTA Metallurgical Services

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW DSX PROCESS FOR THE SEPARATION OF NICKEL
AND COBALT FROM IRON AND ALUMINIUM AND OTHER IMPURITIES
By
C.Y. Cheng, Z. Zhu and Y. Pranolo
The Parker Centre / CSIRO Process Science and Engineering /
CSIRO Minerals Down Under National Research Flagship, Australia,
Presenter and Corresponding Author
Chu Yong Cheng
chu.cheng@csiro.au
ABSTRACT
A new synergistic solvent extraction (SSX) system has been developed in CSIRO recently to
separate nickel and cobalt from iron and aluminium and other impurities. A new CSIRO DSX
process has been created using the new SSX technology to directly recover nickel and cobalt from
laterite leach solutions without intermediate precipitation and re-leach steps. This is a significant
development for the recovery of nickel and cobalt from laterite leach solutions, especially from heap
leaching (HL) and atmospheric leaching (AL) solutions. The new CSIRO DSX process has the
following advantages:
• Making the direct recovery of nickel and cobalt from HL, AL and HPAL solutions possible
without the removal of iron and aluminium,
• Separation of nickel and cobalt from iron, aluminium and other impurities in low pH to avoid
nickel and cobalt losses in neutralisation or precipitation steps,
• Possible savings in capital and operating costs if applied to HPAL processes since the CCD
system for neutralisation, precipitation and solid/liquid separation can be simplified,
• All organic reagents are commercially available and in reasonable prices,
• The process flowsheet is much simplified to save capital and operating costs.
• The new CSIRO DSX process can be readily coupled with nickel hydrolysis, electrowinning
and hydrogen reduction to obtain different nickel products.
240